Tesla Before Elon: The Untold Story

A popular myth on the internet is that Elon Musk created Tesla. While he was instrumental to the company's success, the founding of Tesla is a largely unknown, yet fascinating story! Tesla was the brainchild of Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who created the first Tesla Roadster model and subsequently invited Elon Musk to an early funding round for the company. Eventually, a personal conflict resulted in the co-founders leaving, with Elon Musk taking the center stage in the company since then.

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[TierZoo]

Great episode, I definitely was under the impression Musk founded Tesla too. Gotta say, your original voice of the channel was much more unique. A classy british man is fine, but it's a bit cliche.

[jholidy]

Non of these guys would be here without Nikola Tesla, the real OG nobody talks about.

[jaimelannister]

Its like he's narrating a disney story.

[AbbreviatedReviews]

It seems pretty clear that the reason Elon is so prominently positioned in the company is a combination of his other endeavors being so ambitious and publicly covered, and the fact that Tesla's real success didn't start until the Tesla Model S released in 2012, well after the original founders left. The original Roadster sold a total of 2500 units in its four year run and the Model S has sold over 200, 000 to date. It's not reasonable to erase history, but you don't need to give credit to the founders for achievements that happened after they left - and those achievements are what made Tesla what it is today.

[Tsukiko.]

I for some reason thought you were ColdFusion for a moment, must have been the thumbnail. Anyways glad you are back.

[Alex]

Not that the new voice is bad, but I already miss the old voice

[Alzeinat]

I'm happy that there's a new video and all but where's the voice of the channel?

[thenhewonders]

This video is so distracting because of how fluid, beautiful, and impressive the visual effects are! From the text to the transitions, I really enjoyed watching it all!

[FlyingPhilUK]

The Boring Company and the HyperLoop are separate things
- the Boring Company is an actual company, interested in boring tunnels underground to ease transportation within a city
- the HyperLoop is a concept, based on the idea of having evacuated metal tubes above ground allowing high-speed travel between cities.

[Zobeid]

I was of the original customers who pre-ordered the Roadster and waited impatiently for a year and a half through delay after delay. It was a huge shock to everyone in our little community when Martin Eberhard was ousted and this "Musk" guy who we knew little about stepped in. The biggest change I observed in Tesla's policies was that they were enormously transparent under Eberhard, sharing astonishing amounts of information about the ongoing development of the car, which gave those of us on the waiting list a lot of confidence and enthusiasm. After Musk took over, Tesla became the notoriously secretive (much like Apple!) company that it is today.

[JarvMonster]

Excellent, honest representation of the true Tesla story. I'm so tired of Musk worship.

[BloodMaster]

This was the most enjoyable video in the long time. Please keep up!

[Ro_Ball]

Holy shit! So, the body hiding in the "Starman" spacesuit on the space Roadster is actually Martin! :O

[juggle]

It's true of course that Musk was not the original founder of Tesla, but to discount his role in the company is not correct either. Tesla today is a completely different company than it was when it was first founded. It's a true car manufacturer right now, rather than a few guys tinkering with electric components back in the day. Tesla would have never made it without Musk, would certainly never have gotten to the point of manufacturing their own cars without him. That's a fact.

[webosm]

I thought it was common knowledge. :) If elon started the company all by himself it would be called CarX. :)

[AvirekzFrostif]

For all the love we give elon, we need to remember and respect the companies roots

[Steppenkater]

I'm missing the point where Tesla almost went bankrupt in 2008 and where Elon Musk not only rescued the company with his last remaining money but also by changing a lot of things that were going wrong in the development, production and the business of this company.
Yes the two founder of Tesla had a great idea but Elon Musk together with JB Straubel made it into a working company.

[rafbambam]

I'm one of those guys that knew Elon wasn't the founder; but I didn't know the (whole) story. Thanks for inlightning me. Great video.

[mirshamedia]

The Boring Company isn't involved in the Hyperloop.

They're two different ventures tackling different problems.

Boring Company = underground tunnel network for cars to avoid congested roads.

Hyperloop = a new form of transportation that carries pods of people in a vacuum tube.

[CouchTfilms]

Good to be back! (In my Iron Man 2 voice)